Edinburgh World Writers' Conference + Belgium | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/series/edinburgh-world-writers-conference+world/belgium
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Rachida Lamrabet: 'Literature helps when you are trying to form an identity'https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/22/rachida-lamrabet-literature-identity
What can a national literature mean for a writer who came to Belgium from Morocco? Rachida Lamrabet reflects on the legacy of Hendrik Conscience<p>A few months ago, I was invited to give a lecture for the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the great 19th-century Dutch writer <a href="http://famousbelgians.net/conscience.htm" title="">Hendrik Conscience</a>, the man who taught his people, the Flemish, to read. This writer played an important role in defining the identity of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.</p><p>Conscience wrote an epic novel about the brave Flemish resistance in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Golden_Spurs" title="">Battle of the Golden Spurs</a> of 1302 against the French dominancy, called the Lion of Flanders. He wrote in Dutch, which was quite revolutionary. Flemish writers of his time, and those who came far behind him, were only taken seriously if they wrote in French.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/22/rachida-lamrabet-literature-identity">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureBelgiumEuropeWorld newsFri, 22 Mar 2013 17:57:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/22/rachida-lamrabet-literature-identityPhotograph: Tobias Richter/AlamyIn Ghent, Belgium, writers with foreign origins are overcoming prejudices about what is the national literature. Photograph: Tobias Richter/AlamyPhotograph: Tobias Richter/AlamyIn Ghent, Belgium, writers with foreign origins are overcoming prejudices about what is the national literature. Photograph: Tobias Richter/AlamyRachida Lamrabet2013-03-22T17:57:44Z